Brake Question

[Jago768]

First... excuses my ignorance as I am not sure how to phrase this. I am trying to figure out why the hub area on the base 350 is so exaggerated. I am not sure I have properly described the part so I will include pics. When I look at the wheels, this is all I see. It does not help the Brembos are black, so my eyes have nothing to distract them. That being said, I dont notice this on the Rs. Maybe the R wheels hide this piece or the red brakes distract me? Would love an education on why the base 350s look this way. I've had a lot of performance cars and have never noticed this. It is even starting to make the disks look small. Appreciate any responses, and I am feeling I might need R replica wheels on top of painting my brakes guardsmen blue.

First two images are from the web, the second two my car. Also why are the front brakes black and the rear grey?

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[huskeee]

It's not exaggerated in size as such for the size of the disc, but the fact it's a bright silver color probably draws your eye to it more, plus the non-R wheels give you a much better view of them than the carbon wheels.

 

[Wildcardfox]

It’s called the rotor hat. It’s aluminum. The rotor is steel. The two are pinned together to allow heat expansion and since they are different metals they will expand at different temperatures and at different lengths.

The rotor (steel ring) is sized to match the swept area of the pads. The size of the combo 15.5 front and 15 rear allows for greater heat dissipation than a smaller rotor 14” or below. Rotors are heat sinks so their role is to turn the movement of the car into heat when you engage the brakes. They then need to get rid of that heat so the brake system continues to work properly.

The aluminum hat allows for a lighter combo versus an all steel rotor and it may also help in heat dissipation.

you can find more by googling “two piece rotors”.

 

[dpAtlanta]

It’s called the rotor hat. It’s aluminum. The rotor is steel. The two are pinned together to allow heat expansion and since they are different metals they will expand at different temperatures and at different lengths.

The rotor (steel ring) is sized to match the swept area of the pads. The size of the combo 15.5 front and 15 rear allows for greater heat dissipation than a smaller rotor 14” or below. Rotors are heat sinks so their role is to turn the movement of the car into heat when you engage the brakes. They then need to get rid of that heat so the brake system continues to work properly.

The aluminum hat allows for a lighter combo versus an all steel rotor and it may also help in heat dissipation.

I'll tell you everything Brett got wrong in the 1st bullet point.
I'll tell you everything Brett missed in the 2nd bullet point.
I'll point out what Brett got correct in the 3rd bullet point.

Here goes:
1.
2.
3. Everything he said... nailed it!

 

[Jago768]

Thank you so much for the great explanation.. my father in-law is an old hot rodder (giving him my seat at the track attack) and normally if he was here would have schooled me. He would have said let's go to work and we would have to start disassembling the wheels/brakes and he would explain each part. He could not make it this Christmas because of Covid. Is the R's rotor hat the same size as the base cars?

 

[dpAtlanta]

Based on everything I have read and researched, the rotors for the base and the R are the same... if I'm wrong, I'm sure someone will chime in to clarify.

 

[JAJ]

First... excuses my ignorance as I am not sure how to phrase this. I am trying to figure out why the hub area on the base 350 is so exaggerated. I am not sure I have properly described the part so I will include pics. When I look at the wheels, this is all I see. It does not help the Brembos are black, so my eyes have nothing to distract them. That being said, I dont notice this on the Rs. Maybe the R wheels hide this piece or the red brakes distract me? Would love an education on why the base 350s look this way. I've had a lot of performance cars and have never noticed this. It is even starting to make the disks look small. Appreciate any responses, and I am feeling I might need R replica wheels on top of painting my brakes guardsmen blue.

First two images are from the web, the second two my car. Also why are the front brakes black and the rear grey?

The R and non-R rotors are the same. The calipers are also the same except for the color.

The rear "rotor hat" (the aluminum piece in the middle) is large because there's a drum brake housed inside it. The GT350/R handbrake is inside the service brake rotor, just like a BMW.

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